Under a proposed plan in Boston, the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Mission Hill would be demolished and in its place Brigham and Women's Hospital would build a residential and medical complex. The hospital submitted to the city a proposal for a multibuilding development of more than 600,000 square feet. Brigham and Women's plans include a 57,000-square-foot laboratory and office building that would also include outpatient services, according to documents filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Advocates for workers, consumers, and employers have joined forces to urge Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to veto what's being called "direct payment" legislation, warning that it would result in higher and unexpected out-of-pocket healthcare costs. At a news conference in Tallahassee, Associated Industries of Florida; Council 79 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the public-employee union; Florida PIRG; the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans; and the Consumer Federation of the Southeast blasted the legislation, which they claim would allow doctors who are not members of PPO networks to receive payment from a patient's insurance company.
A prominent Nashville home healthcare executive and philanthropist is accused of making false claims that defrauded Medicare of $6.3 million. Ed Yarbrough, U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, accuses Jim Carell of installing a Missouri attorney as sham owner of three agencies that actually were owned by Carell's management company, to evade Medicare rules that limited a home health agency owner's compensation.
Kaiser Permanente has 30 farmers markets at medical facilities in four states where patients, staff and community members shop. Locally grown fruits and vegetables also are used in 23 Kaiser hospital kitchens. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Preston Maring, MD, says Kaiser Permanente's emphasis on preventive medicine seemed a good fit for farm-fresh food.
The village of Homer Glen in Illinois is close to having one of the state's few free-standing emergency centers, but questions remain over whether it should have a helicopter landing. For months, Joliet-based Silver Cross Hospital has been eyeing an existing medical center where it hopes to develop a free-standing emergency center. The Homer Glen facility would treat about 10,000 patients per year.
A coalition of labor groups is aiming at Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, who supports taxing employer-provided health benefits as a way to pay for overhauling the healthcare system. An advertisement released by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the National Education Association says "the last thing we need is to pay more. But Senator Ron Wyden would tax the healthcare benefits we get at work—as if they were income. Taxing healthcare benefits? That doesn't make sense."